LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
CONTENTS
VI PEACHTREE MOUND AND VILLAGE SITE, N. C ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATES
Three mandibles show a pointed outline formed by the biting edges of the incisors, apparently caused by early loss of the upper part.
VIII ILLUSTRATIONS
Jennings during the analysis of the samples after they reached the museum, and would have been tasked with writing the report. We are well aware of the rapidly accumulating data from the Southeast, as if a few years could change some of the comparisons and reconstructions offered in our analysis.
PEACHTREE MOUND AND VILLAGE SITE,
CHEROKEE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA
INTRODUCTION
GENERAL ARCHEOLOGICAL PICTURE IN THE SOUTHEAST
Three of the sherds from the Deasonville site are decorated in a manner comparable to the general Marksville type (Collins, 1932, p. 19). The stamped pottery designs are more common in the eastern part of the Southeast, extending from Pennsylvania south to about the middle of the Florida peninsula and west to the Mississippi River.
TAXONOMY OF ABORIGINAL CULTURES
6 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull.131 In Georgia and Alabama this influence of Cole's creek is less evident, but may live to affect some of the proto- or even prehistoric streams. Extensive archaeological projects in Georgia and much of the important work in Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas, Lou-.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
This clearly indicates that the Peachtree site was located approximately in the center of the area during the entire Cherokee rule. Necessary to our hypothesis is the fact of continued Cherokee occupation of the Peachtree Mound area.
EXCAVATIONS
Only the river valley floodplains (pi. 1, B) have soil fertile enough to make it viable or profitable. As shown in Figure 1, the mound itself lay directly on the river bank.
PEACHTREE MOUND
Construction of the secondary mound was intermittent, indicated by several thin water deposits up through its structure and 6 refuse layers.^. The level of deposition of the lenses in this addition did not match that of the primary mound.
THE SECONDARY MOUND
There is a difference of 2 feet in the levels of the bottom floor and the top of these post holes. John Macomb, an old settler, says that when he first saw the mound, there were four large pillars at the corners of a 20-foot square on top of the mound.
PEACHTIJEL
It also appears that the stones start at the edge of the pile, at its base. Two of these shown on the ground plan run under the rocks of the structure.
MATERIAL CULTURE ^
ARCHITECTURE AND HOUSE-LIFE
COSTUME AND DRESS
Hairpins of shell, made from columella of conch (pi. 10), and double-pointed objects of polished bone were represented. Dress was of both skin and cloth, as shown by the presence of both with one of the burials.
CUSTOMS AND CEREMONIES
The narrow side slabs around Burial Pm-58 were battered and chipped at their upper edges, indicating that they had been driven into place with a hammer or maul of some kind (pp. 16, 5), while the three walls of in others the cysts were no deeper than floor tiles. Two examples of "bird spouts" have been encountered with the usual bird's beak extending to the front of the bowl.
DESCRIPTION OP MANUFACTURED OBJECTS Stone
It is unlikely that these stones were ax or millstones because there is no evidence of wear on either the socket or the part of the stones. They have different shapes, but due to the perforation, we consider them together as pendant shapes. A type is a ceramic group where the similarity is generic for all four signs caused by the entire pottery complex of a particular cultural group.
Motifs of carved paddle designs include check or net, many types of curved designs. Among the secondary features of the vessel are the single nailed or flanged handles, which originate on the rim well below the rim of the vessel. Scalloped ridges are occasionally found with a knotted or nodular projection just below the top of the scallop.
When thickened, the lip is proportionately widened, and perj^endicular incisions may occur on the edge, just below the outer edge of the lip.
WAREB
If no clay is added under the lip, a single or double series of pointed designs may occur with varying degrees of regularity. The lip is usually finished after the body has been decorated, as some of the more poorly finished lips show partially obliterated paddle marks. Beakers were represented only by sherds, so the occurrence of this form is entirely based on fragments.
The rims of the cazuela type of bowl are usually not thickened or modified in any way other than rounding and smoothing.
WAREC
An irregular type of pot was found, with a large flared rim, the diameter of which is larger than any other part of the vessel. The pot handles started at the lip, were actually attached to it, and ended about an inch down at the shoulder area. The lip of this type of vessel rarely faces outwards and differs from true A jars in this respect.
It is tempered with grit, but instead of this sand being of varying coarseness, it is rotten rock or bits of burnt clay. The relative scarcity of this decorative motif can be considered diagnostic of a focus, insofar as it is one. Unless the analysis of the sherds is incorrect, only three such sherds are found above the base of the mound, while a dozen were found beneath the floor.
Shelled C wares appear to have been more common in the earlier history of the site.
ARCHEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS
Many of the features listed as diagnostic will be considered irrelevant by some; others will feel it more important. First, that the Cherokee at Peachtree had a cultural combination of all these elements, with a predominant percentage of material used by the historic Cherokee. Second, that the earliest inhabitants of the area were comparable to Harrington's "Round Tomb People."
If it is not a garbage dump, this would be undeniable evidence that the objects in the lower layer represent the material culture of the first inhabitants and that the artifacts in the upper layer - provided they are not similar - represent a culture that is more recent and is not related to the . At Peachtree they encroached on the present surface of the mound, although it contained no objects of European manufacture. This is, from a historical point of view, the greatest weakness of the classification system now being developed.
To divide this vast region into smaller divisions is beyond the scope of the summary.
CONCLUSIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDIX A
APPENDIX B
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 131 PLATE 1 .. 64. B, Fertile valley at the junction of Peachtree Creek and C, Clearinsiandsur\-eyingthe PeachtreeMound.
APPENDIX D
SKELETAL REMAINS FROM THE PEACHTREE
SITE, NORTH CAROLINA
DESCRIPTION OF SPECIMENS
Left temporal (right not present) shows no oorexostosis, but a large perforation of the tympanic membrane. The shape of the skull fragments gives good reason to believe that this individual was undeformed. The dental arch is regular, the teeth only slightly worn, but already a few of the.
There is an area of ​​active osteitis on the medial surface of the distal fifth of the right fibula, with a slight reaction to corre-. The teeth are worn most antero-superiorly; that antero-inferior is of the type shown in Plate 46. The epiphyseal surface at the sternal end of the clavicle shows the rather deep excavation characteristic of incipient union.
Both femurs show significant irregular swelling of the stem due to old osteitis; other long bones do not show this.
SUMMARY
Thus the plane of the flattened occiput is almost vertical and forms a wide angle near obelion with the flattened parietals, which in turn form a fairly right angle near bregma with the flattened frontals. In other words, this new subtype differs from the first of Imbelloni's two subtypes, described above, in that the anterior parts of the parietals are flattened.^ It will be recognized that, because the parts along the midline of the cranial vault were limited, growth could only take place laterally. Of the few records of cranial deformity available for the Southeast, only one appears to indicate the presence of this variant type.
It is perhaps significant that some of the burials identified as the oldest, that is, having been buried before the construction of the mound, show no fronto-occipital deformation, although simple occipital flattening is suggested. Of the large group of burials encountered beyond the periphery of the mound, which undoubtedly includes late burials (one with European articles) and perhaps earlier ones, there are four examples of this intentional deformation. It is also worth noting that of the three individuals accompanied by European articles, two are intentionally deformed (variant type).
2After writing this report, I described this type of deformity as "fronto-parieto-occipital" at a meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists.
MALE
FEMALE
Stewart] SKELETAL REMAINS FROM THE PEACHTREE SITE 95 .. Comparative data on the lengths {cm.) of the large long bones. Pathology.-It is still debatable whether the signs of osteitis and periostitis not uncommonly seen in Indian long bones, especially the tibia, are due to syphilis. It is, if anything, more debatable whether syphilis is a pre- or post-Columbian disease in North America.
Under these circumstances it is remarkable that five cases of osteitis, typical of syphilis as we know it, occur in the most recent gi'oup, and also in the cases found behind the mound.
CONCLUSION
131 septal openings.—Although only 33 (15 right, 18 left) humeri are sufficiently preserved to show the presence or absence of the septal openings, these defects were observed in 15 (5 right, 10 left), or in about 45 per cent. Although the evidence is limited to a single non-metric character, there is reason to believe that Cherokee and Iroquois are distinct. Iroquois skeletal remains have not yet been clearly distinguished from Algonkian, but together these two groups have ear exostoses rather uncommonly, whereas Cherokee (assuming the Peachtree skeletons to be this) have them commonly.
The stratigraphic positions of the deliberately deformed skulls not only suggest, but make it likely, in light of findings elsewhere, that the practice of head deformation reached the Southeast quite late. So says Kelly (1938) about the excavations regarding the trading post in the middle part of the. Furthermore, in Louisiana, Collins (1927) deliberately obtained undeformed skulls associated with elements of the Tchefuncte culture.
As in the case of skull deformation, the stratigraphic positions of the skeletons at Peachtree, along with evidence from elsewhere,.
98 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
LITERATURE CITED
INDEX
102 INDEX Hammerstoncs, 3S
INDEX 103
